Paper/Quantum Information and Accounting Information:Salient Features

Demski, Joel; Fitzgerald, S.; Ijiri, Yuji; Ijiri, Yumi; Lin, Haijin (2006). "Quantum information and accounting information: Their salient features and conceptual applications". 28. local page: Journal of Accounting and Public Policy: 435–464. 

To link accounting information with quantum information, it is necessary to review the salient features and research emphasis of quantum information. In Section 1, we introduce important features of quantum information, such as quantum superposition, randomness, entanglement, and unbreakable cryptography. We then selectively discuss the research methods and research emphasis in quantum information and speculate on useful possibilities in accounting. In particular, we conclude important lessons can be derived from quantum information’s attention to the fundamental laws of the discipline, consistency with past principles, causality of events, and ways to cope with a paradigm shift.

We start to explore the possible link between quantum information and double-entry information in Section 2. Double-entry information lies in the core of accounting information. It emphasizes connectivity and causality. A generic linkage is established through a discussion of the work of nineteenth century mathematician Arthur Cayley. He developed important mathematical concepts, such as matrix algebra, that later became indispensable for quantum mechanics. In addition, Cayley wrote a small booklet on double-entry bookkeeping and praised the system embedded in double-entry bookkeeping as an “absolutely perfect one”. We describe the parallels made by Cayley between Euclid’s ratio theory and double-entry theory and conclude Cayley was able to give such high praise to accounting because of the isomorphism he saw between the “ratio matrix” and the “double-entry matrix”. The feasibility of a hybrid, “quantum double-entry information”, is also briefly explored.

Accounting information, in our point of view, is a broader concept than double-entry information. In Section 3, we emphasize its endogeneity including recognition and aggregation issues. The measurement school and the information content school are contrasted and critically analyzed from both physical and social perspectives. Some conceptual applications of quantum information to accounting information are identified. In this fashion, we hope to find a way to integrate the measurement process and its interactions with the environment when the double-entry feature of the information is both preserved and emphasized.